The present invention relates generally to dispensing apparatus, and more particularly to frozen product dispensers incorporating a prefilled, removable container.
Ice cream is often dispensed in retail ice cream stores from individual pre-packaged cardboard containers. The ice cream is scooped out by hand and individually served to the consumer. Scooping the ice cream by hand allows a retailer to serve hard ice cream which is generally considered to taste better than other types, and enables the ice cream to incorporate a variety of hard flavor particles, such as chocolate, nuts, or pieces of fruit, etc. An advantage of the hand scoop method is that a wide range of flavors can be sold at a single outlet. No complicated dispensing apparatus is required, and hand-scooped ice cream is relatively cheap to produce and transport. However, scooping the ice cream by hand is work intensive, expensive, and requires a relatively large display freezer for holding a variety of flavors. Moreover, hand scooping is slow, especially because hygiene precautions require that each scoop be washed after each serving.
Another method for dispensing frozen food products utilizes "soft-serve" dispensing apparatus in which the ingredients of the products are loaded into the device in liquid form. The soft-serve dispenser then mixes, freezes, and subsequently dispenses the frozen product, such as soft-serve ice cream or yogurt, into edible cones or other containers. These types of dispensers are complicated, and are often difficult and expensive to maintain. Sanitary considerations require extensive cleaning efforts after each batch of product is dispensed to clean the interior and moving elements of the dispensers. In addition, such dispensers are incapable of dispensing a "hard frozen" product, such as may be provided by the hand scooped method. Rather, dispensing apparatus have generally been only capable of dispensing "soft-serve" products, which are generally of inferior quality in texture and taste when compared with scoop dispensed products. Moreover, soft-serve dispensing apparatus are incapable of dispensing frozen products which include hard flavor particles because the particles clog the dispenser. Soft-serve dispensers have generally required great amounts of power to operate and have been expensive to manufacture. Furthermore, each different flavor or product generally requires different mixing and dispensing methods or equipment, so each dispenser may only be used for a particular narrow range of flavors and types of products.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide dispensing apparatus which overcomes the problems of the prior art, including those described above.
It is an additional object of the present invention to provide dispensing apparatus capable of dispensing hard frozen food product, including hard flavor particles.
Additional advantages and features of the present invention will become apparent from the subsequent description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.